Step By Step
by JWood201
Summary: Karen reevaluates her relationship with her stepchildren and takes the first step after finding something that she had forgotten about long ago. Season 7.


It was one of those days. You know, the dreary, rainy kind that seem to last forever. The kind where every minute feels like an entire day.

It was one of those days and Karen Walker was bored. No, scratch that, she was well beyond bored and on her way to either becoming comatose or completely insane. Ever since Stanley had died, Karen hated being at home in her huge penthouse all alone. The place felt so empty without him, not considering the huge amount of space that he occupied. She had been going to work more than usual for Grace's company and would spend every spare moment with her Jackie. She was even spending more social time with Will than usual. But unfortunately, all of her friends were busy or unreachable today, so Karen was forced to entertain herself.

The manse was eerily quiet. Karen had no idea where most of her staff was and, to be honest, she didn't really care. Karen made her way upstairs and wandered down the hall. She passed Olivia and Mason's old rooms, the doors of which hadn't been opened in close to two years. They remained exactly how the kids had left them – calendar pages unturned, dirty laundry littering the floor, Mason's secret snack stash having undoubtedly grown stale and moldy somewhere under his bed. Two ghostly time capsules perfectly mummified and protected by a thin layer of dust.

Karen approached the playroom and stopped, surprised to see the door open. Like Olivia and Mason's rooms, it had remained unchanged for years, Karen's plans to convert it into something "useful," like a laboratory or an Indian casino, never having come to fruition. She poked her head into the room and glanced around before flicking on the light and entering. Stuffed animals, toys, and arts and crafts supplies filled the space. There was stuff everywhere. It normally drove Karen nuts, which is why she had carefully made sure that all of their crap had been contained to these three rooms. She didn't mind the mess today, however, as her boredom was thrilled to have something out of the ordinary to look at. The truth was, Karen had never really explored this room and she was surprised at how homey and comfortable the disarray felt.

A huge CD tower filled with almost every genre imaginable stretched practically from floor to ceiling, old homework assignments lay by the computer, and artwork from Olivia and Mason's younger days hung on the walls. Karen's exploration brought her to the center of the room in front of the xBox toy that Elliot had been so excited to see that Mason had. Karen still had no idea what it did, so she began pressing random buttons on the console until the flat screen TV on the wall before her burst to life and the speakers situated around the room erupted. Karen shrieked and stumbled backwards. "Good Lord!" she exclaimed, leaning on the desk, one hand over her heart. Computer generated cartoon characters bounced around raucously on the screen and Karen scowled at them. She scrambled back to the game console and frantically fumbled with it until the noise and characters disappeared as quickly as they had come.

Karen straightened her blouse and peered around cautiously to see if anyone had witnessed her fright. Satisfied that she was quite alone, Karen pushed her hair back into place and stalked out of the room, hitting the lights and closing the door behind her.

Karen continued down the hall until she reached her opulent bedroom and stood in the doorway for a moment. It was dark and quiet, save for the rain pattering rhythmically on the windows and the occasional rumble of thunder. It was depressing as hell and Karen wished the sun would just show up already. She reached to her left and pushed the sliding light switch up slowly, causing the wall sconces to begin to glow a dull orange. She left the lights half off and wandered into the room. Saying that it was big would be an understatement; the room was absolutely huge. A fireplace stood grandly along the wall between the doors to the hallway and to her massive closet. Straight ahead, a raised king sized bed demanded attention, situated before an immense picture window overlooking Manhattan and Central Park.

Karen kicked off her heels, leaving them in a pile in the middle of the floor, and plodded over the thick carpet to her desk. She sat down on the richly upholstered chair before wondering why she had come over to her desk in the first place. She rested her chin in her palm and stared at the subtly intricate pattern on the wallpaper. Karen sighed and tapped her perfectly manicured nails on the slick wood surface.

Suddenly an idea came to her and she opened the top drawer and pulled out a piece of stationary and a pen. Karen took the cap off the pen and set it to paper before changing her mind. She scowled again, annoyed with herself for not being able to occupy her mind. She rested her chin in her palm again and began playing with the pen, twisting it back and forth between her thumb and forefinger. Suddenly the pen flew out of her hand and bounced across the carpet. She looked after it idly, but made no effort to go after it.

Karen opened her desk drawer again and put the piece of stationary back. She straightened up a pile of papers and moved some other supplies around in the drawer when something caught her eye. From the very bottom of the drawer, buried underneath a mound of letters, cards, and other mementos, Karen pulled out a single sheet of wrinkled eleven-by-fourteen art paper. She smiled slightly; she had completely forgotten about this until now.

* * *

"Miss Karen?" Rosario called upon entering Karen's closet, which was bigger than her own room on the other end of the manse.

"What is it?" Karen snapped back. She was sprawled out on the chaise lounge nursing a mixed drink, the newest issue of _Vogue_ open in her lap.

Rosario frowned at her. "Sorry to disturb you at work, Howard Hooch."

Karen looked up from her magazine and smiled at the punny insult. "Ah, Rosie, I love it when you come up with new ones. That's good – that's a keeper." She raised her glass in a small toast to the woman when she noticed the large piece of paper in her maid's hand. "Whatcha got there, Rosiola?"

"I found this in the playroom this morning. Mason drew it and I thought you'd like to see it."

Karen rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink. When she didn't move or further acknowledge what she had said, Rosario brought the drawing over to Karen and dropped it in her line of vision on top of _Vogue_'s fashion picks for winter.

Karen gave Rosario her best death stare, which the older woman effortlessly returned. Karen seemed annoyed, but picked up the paper with her free hand and looked it over anyway. The top of the page held a title scrawled in crayon by a six year old hand, backwards letters and everything, that read "My Family." Underneath this title were four stick figures drawn in inappropriate colors such as purple and green. These four people were labeled as well: "Dad," "Mom," "Me," "Liv." Poor Stanley took up half the page and Mason even drew himself as slightly rotund. Olivia's red wavy hair was obscenely exaggerated and stuck out in a million different directions.

Karen looked up at Rosario and held the picture out to her. "What the hell are you giving this to me for! Go send it to First Wife!"

"Look again, lady. That's you."

"What?" Karen was completely baffled and looked down at the drawing again. The "Mom" figure did indeed resemble her moreso than it did Cathy. It had dark hair piled high atop its head, was wearing high heels, sported a huge diamond ring, and was holding a glass tumbler. "But … where's my pitchfork and pointy tail?" Karen asked, surprised and slightly disappointed that she was not drawn in the usual fashion this time.

Rosario merely shrugged. "Guess he decided you didn't deserve them any more." With that, Rosario turned and left the room. Karen set her drink down on the side table and stared down at the picture.

* * *

Karen slowly stood and meandered over to the bed, eyes never leaving the drawing. She sat down on the plush comforter as she reacquainted herself with the piece of artwork. Karen had completely forgotten that she had saved this. She had been so moved and shocked that Mason had drawn such a picture that she didn't know to do with it. Her first instinct was to hang it on the refrigerator, but she wasn't that kind of person. Karen Walker did not gush over the tiniest achievement that Stan's kids made. She didn't plaster every piece of artwork on the Maytag with a cheesy magnet bought on the family vacation to, say, Mt. Rushmore. Oddly humiliated by her emotional reaction, she ended up shoving the drawing in the bottom of her desk drawer, where it was safe and accessible, but out of sight.

Karen ran her fingers over the wrinkled paper, the wax from the crayon smooth beneath her skin. She smoothed the artwork out in her lap, trying to straighten out the folded and creased corners. Karen stared down at the stick figure representing her and laughed. Mason's interpretation of her, even at six years old, was eerily precise. No one could argue that the woman labeled as "Mom" was not Karen Walker.

Karen carefully set the drawing down on the bed beside her and picked up her cell phone. She flipped it open and began scrolling through her phone book from the end. There, right after Plastic Surgeon and Pharmacist, was a listing for Olivia. After some slight hesitation, Karen finally selected the number for her stepdaughter's cell phone. It rang once, twice, three times and Karen contemplated hanging up after each. After five rings, Karen was about to hit the disconnect button.

"Hey, this is Olivia!"

"Uh, Olivia. It's Karen, I –."

"I'm not here right now, so leave me a message and if I like you I'll call you back! Are ya feelin' lucky?"

Olivia laughed and the voicemail beeped. Karen was caught off guard. She suddenly went speechless and swallowed. She definitely was not feeling lucky. "Um, Olivia, hi. It's your stepmother. Well, not technically anymore, but I'm not sure how that works legally." Karen realized she was rambling and paused. "Uh, it's Karen. I was just calling to see how you and, uh, the other one are doing. Mason! How you and Mason are. I, uh, I haven't seen you kids in a while." Karen rubbed the back of her neck nervously, wondering where she was going with this. "I was wondering if you two maybe wanted to get together, you know, maybe for lunch or something. Shopping spree. My treat." Karen paused again, second-guessing herself already. There was no way they wanted to hang out with her. "So, um, you can call me back. If you want."

She took the phone from her ear and was about to hang up. "Tell her that you miss them." Karen froze, unaware that Rosario had been listening to her one-sided conversation.

After a moment, Karen returned the phone to her ear. "I miss you kids. And I –. That's it." She faltered for another moment before finally hanging up. Karen snapped the phone closed and held it in her lap, staring straight ahead at the wall. When she felt Rosario finally leave the room she turned and looked down at Mason's artwork once again.

Karen had no idea how long she had been sitting there when her phone began to ring in her hands. She sat and listened to it for a moment – a melodic classical piece that she had set as her customized ring tone, something that seemed somewhat out of character for her. A myriad of colors flashed on the external display as the device sang. Karen completely expected to see "Jackie" displayed beneath the time stamp since he was basically the only person who ever called this number unless it was an emergency. Karen looked down at the display and paused momentarily.

She cleared her throat and flipped open the phone. "Hey, Olivia." Karen listened to the voice on the other end respond to her message and flashed the empty room a brilliant relieved smile, which only grew throughout the course of their conversation.


End file.
